Disability charity wins award for creative online postcard campaign

National disability charity United Response was recognised at last week’s Charity Times Awards, winning ‘Best Use of the Web’, as well as a highly commended award in its ‘Charity of the Year’ group.

Within a highly competitive category that included Diabetes Research & Wellness Foundation, Leonard Cheshire Disability, The National Autistic Society, Quartet Community Foundation, Royal Academy of Dance, Samaritan's Purse UK and Sky Badger, the charity’s first ever creative campaign Postcards from the Edges was recognised for engaging with contributors and creating a digital community.

Launched last year as part of United Response’s 40th anniversary, Postcards from the Edges seeks to offer a space for disabled people’s views to be shared through artwork.

The accompanying website was created by agency and social enterprise Reason Digital, which made the original vision for the platform a reality.

Anyone with an interest in disability was encouraged to express themselves creatively on a blank postcard, using words or pictures to convey their message, and people uploaded collages, poems, photographs, digital art, paintings and even knitted postcards, with over 1,000 submitted to the project in total.

The collection was turned into an exhibition which toured the country throughout 2013, with a number of postcard contributors attending and even speaking at events, as the sense of community created through the campaign flourished.

Diane Lightfoot, Director of Communications & Fundraising, said:

“As one of our flagship campaigns, Postcards from the Edges means a great deal to us, and we have worked hard to create, run and promote a project that has blossomed to showcase a diverse and rich kaleidoscope of experiences around disability.

Contributors to, and supporters of, the campaign have been instrumental to its growth and success; there would be no project without them and the sense of community that the campaign has fostered has been overwhelming.”

United Response was also highly commended in its charity of the year group, primarily in recognition of the fundraising and campaigning work undertaken in celebration of its 40th anniversary.

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We work with young people and adults with a wide range of learning disabilities across England and Wales. To plan the right kind of support, we work closely with each individual and the people who are important to them. In this way, they get the support they want, in the way they want.

ROC (Robert Owen Communities) has Wellbeing services in Devon and Cornwall, which we can support you to attend. ROC’s Wellbeing services offers you the opportunity to learn new and exciting skills and gain accredited learning qualifications at the same time.